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The Semantics and Pragmatics of Medical Knowledge

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Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 113))

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Abstract

At least as important as a particular item of medical knowledge itself is to know something about the relationships of that knowledge to the experiential world it is talking about. The reason is that the patients the physician is concerned with are parts of that experiential world. So, when using any knowledge in her practice, e.g., some knowledge on infectious diseases, a morally conscientious doctor will be interested in whether, and in what way, this knowledge relates to the ‘ world out there’. Does the medical knowledge she employs bear any relevance to the bodies and souls of her patients ? Does it enable her to understand the patient ’s suffering , illness experience , and illness narrative? Will it help her find useful diagnoses and treatments? Are there in fact any indicators of such qualities of medical knowledge? Why not use astrology, Ayurveda, or exorcism instead of the theory of infectious diseases?

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  1. Theory of Medicine Department, University of Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Kazem Sadegh-Zadeh

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Sadegh-Zadeh, K. (2012). The Semantics and Pragmatics of Medical Knowledge. In: Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine. Philosophy and Medicine(), vol 113. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2260-6_11

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